Hey. Hi, everyone. Needthony Lovetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new LL Cool Jay album, The Force.

Here we have the first full-length album in 11 whole years from legendary Queens, rapper, songwriter, and actor, Mr. LL Cool Jay. It's his 14th album, and I guess has been released based under his own name, on his own label in tandem with Def Jam Records.

LL Cool Jay is somebody who I have not reviewed his music yet on this channel. I guess we should really talk about why that is, despite the fact that he is such a significant figure in the history of hip hop music. But for a time, I feel like LL could easily be categorized as one of these artists who on some level is still around and active, but more or less, he has retired into some version of music industry veteran status, and the roles and parts that he plays in the entertainment industry more broadly have overshadowed his current day musical output, much in the same way that a lot of people know Ice T these days, not for being a formative West Coast hip hop figure, but one of the key detectives on Law & Order SVU. He's still tearing it apart in body count, though, so shout out to him.

However, in regards to LL, though, make no mistake, no matter how far in the past his heyday is, his impact on hip hop as a whole is massive, cannot be overstated, and to some degree is still felt today. I mean, he was one of the genre's earliest big commercial successes, which he achieved through his massive voice and energy, his endless charisma, and style, too. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that on the cover of this record, he's wearing the kangol. And while maybe some of his earliest releases have not held the same long-term critical acclaim that records from Eric B. And Rakim or The Beastie Boys or EPMD have, records like Radio and Bad are still hyper, hyper essential inclusions to hip hop's early blueprint and brought countless new eyes and ears to the genre, which LL achieved without compromising the genre's artistic integrity or very black and very New York roots.

Now, truth be told, though, LL's career past this point, artistically and commercially, took a lot of twists and turns. Don't call it a comeback. There was the second win that he got off of the album he dropped just at the start of the 1990s, Mama Said Knock You Out, where he was flirting with a lot of new school, hard core hip hop sounds at the time. The track "Murdergram Deux" off of this new record actually calls back to a track on that album.

Past the early '90s, though, LL Made numerous attempts at continuing his commercial success that were not quite as fruitful. He went into acting, too, had a very weird and controversial beef with battle rapper Cannabis, flirted with R&B a little bit as well. There's a reason you could say he's been musically MIA for the past decade.

However, all of that seems irrelevant in the face of this new LP here, The Force, where the whole point seems to be to celebrate the past and for LL to get back in touch with what made him great artistically to begin with. However, I will say, while The Force's vibes and aesthetics do read as nostalgic and old-school. At the same time, I don't really feel like this album is that much of a throwback because there's not really an LL Cool J album in his past catalog that sounds like this.

Much of the time, the energy on this LP is not as hardcore or over the top aggressive as Mama Said Knock You Out. LL is also not really bringing back that rudimentary, bombastic, and sometimes rock-centric production that guys like Rick Rubin were known for back in the '80s, as the vast majority of the beats on this album are crafted on some level by the one and only Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest fame, which gives a lot of cuts on The Force, say, old school, boom bap, jazz rap, soul chop flavor to it, which for LL still reads as new because this was never really a sound in the early stages of his career that he was associated with - the super Afrocentric native tongues hip hop movement that Q-Tip was known to be a pretty big figurehead in.

Also on top of that, I feel like Q-Tip, being an artist's artist, throws in a lot of weird and experimental ideas when it comes to the B-side of this thing. Cool synth work, very weird effect palettes. So case in point, this album is not just simply LL wrapping over a bunch of throwback jazz rap beats or a group of instrumentals that sound like something off of low-end theory. Like with the eerie synths and rhythm sequences all over the opening track, "Spirit of Cyrus", which has a bit of a Snoop Dog refrain on it that works really well. And all of this sets the stage for LL to lyrically explore themes of police brutality and lawlessness. And he does a great job of painting a personal picture of all this, despite the fact that he's not typically known specifically for his social commentary in a lot of his music.

From here through the first leg of the record, he continues to carry the torch for rap's original spirit, like with the big vocals and bad boy energy on the title track of the album, where Q-Tip's buzzing and slick synth layers, as well as galloping high hats make for a sick groove.

There's also "Saturday Night Special", where LL lyrically goes above and beyond to paint this character portrait of a hustler who you don't want to cross, somebody who's going to enact revenge on you at a moment of insecurity. And Rick Ross comes through lyrically to play into this role a little bit and further add details to this image.

Next on the album, LL gives us what is essentially a lyrical celebration of blackness of African-American culture through his own perspectives on it on "Black Code Suite", where he employs a lot of nods and to things like music, everyday life and experiences and food.

After this, though, I think the midpoint of the record becomes a mixed bag. Q-Tip starts dishing out these very weak, forgettable filler choruses, namely on the song "Passion". LL also drops some opening bars on this track that reminds you of why exactly he wasn't taken as seriously out of the gate back in the day as artists like Chuck D or K-RS1. "You all need a new team like a girl with a BBL needs new jeans. It's in my DNA. To let him play with the enclave, percolate while songs play."

Then after this, we get what I think is the roughest track here with Saweetie. That would be "Proclivities", which is this slick and flirty jam where LL is just talking a lot of game, making a lot of passes, but it mostly, to my ears anyway, just reads as awkward. Then "30 Decembers" reminds me of tracks we've heard repeatedly as of late from the likes of Nas on his latest records with Hitboy, where he's really diving into his past and reframing and recontextualizing a lot of things.

Again, LL, just like that, attempts to go over the past several decades of his life in his career and ponder how he's changed, how the world he originally came from has changed, how he feels almost out of place in it to a degree. Home is no longer home for him anymore in a way. But with that being said, he really only has a lot of spare observations to throw out there. Not really any big profound conclusions.

Thankfully from here, though, the album does pick up thanks to a lot of great lyrical team-ups. There's "Run It Back", where Q-Tip takes on a bit of a bigger role vocally, and LL lyrically is bragging on a lot of his past successes, which I feel like serves as a much needed reminder for those who may have forgotten about them or just not even noticed them at this point.

We also get that Black Panther ferocity on "Huey in the Chair" with Busta Rhymes, where where we know Busta is going to smash it. And flow-wise, he certainly does. LL very much keeps up with them, and the both of them together are providing essentially this revolutionary Huey P. Newton angle to a lot of their bars.

Meanwhile, "Praise Him" featuring Nas is also a great moment flow-wise, where him and another great go toe to toe. There are a lot of religious angles, specifically in relation to Islam, that are explored on this one.

And then "Murdergram Deux" with Eminem is probably the biggest instance of lyrical fireworks on the entire record, where Q-Tip provides this just persistent, almost like relentless, driving, basey groove, very unlikely instrumental, honestly. This beat just does not stop. And flow-wise, Eminem and LL do not stop either. In fact, I would say this is maybe the best collaboration of the bunch because I think they bring the best out of each other on this one.

There's obviously pressure for LL to keep up with a guy who is as technically skilled as Eminem. And Eminem isn't throwing out quite as many awful bars as he has in the past. I mean, it's still an Eminem feature. If you find his whole vibe and energy, especially at this point in his career, to be just unforgivably cringe, you are most likely not going to get a lot out of this feature. But as somebody who has to listen to pretty much everything he does these days, it does sound like on some level because it's LL Cool Jay. He is on his best behavior and isn't being as weird or as obnoxious or as indulgent as he might be in just a solo context.

To finish things off, we have "The Vow", where LL delivers this hilariously exaggerated origin story of himself. He's born and there's lightning and there's a microphone. It's absolutely unhinged and insane. Really could have ended right there. But actually past this point, we get a handful of pretty forgettable features that just don't really add that much to the song, the theme of the song, the record overall. Still, I will say it's a decent closer for an album that overall, while it may not be mind-blowing, it may not be one of the best hip hop records I've heard this year, it's still pretty good and definitely more than I expected in terms of quality from somebody who is perceived to be as over the hill as LL Cool Jay is.

I feel like this record also just serves as a reminder for how good a late stage album can be from an artist of LL's profile when he's in a position and he's in a context where he's basically allowed to do whatever the hell it is he wants. Because, yeah, as of right now, that's literally where LL Cool Jay is at. There are no commercial pressures for him to make songs that sound a certain way or read a certain way. He's also a total legend and can pretty much work with just about anybody that he feels like, most likely, have anybody producing that he wants, obviously.

When left up totally to his own creative devices, he can put out some pretty cool shit that feels like it has a foot in the old, a foot in the new, and is also something completely weird and unique a little bit, too. Which is why I'm feeling a light seven on this album.

Anthony Fantano. LL Cool J. Forever.